Changed and Empowered

God’s love is dramatic. 

God reconciled man to Himself. Reconciliation is to change or exchange. Reconciliation involves a change in the relationship between God and man or man to man. When there is a need for reconciliation, it means that there is a breakdown of a relationship. Paul says that before reconciliation, we were powerless, ungodly, enemies of God. We were under God’s wrath (Romans 5:9). God reconciled the world to Himself through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ on the cross (Romans 5:1). 

The reconciliation that God has brought has changed us, it has saved us. When we are in Christ, we become new creatures, the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are no longer enemies of God, ungodly, sinners. We are empowered by the love of God that is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which He has given us (Romans 5:5). 

God’s love for us is not a trickle or a miserly portion, God's love is poured out on us, in lavish measure. If God's love for us is poured out on us when we were still His enemies, imagine what His love for His friends would be like. Have you been changed and saved through the reconciliation that is ours through Christ? Are you empowered by the love of God as you live each day? 

Lord thank you for loving me enough to make me your friend.